In the health-care field, particularly as to the storage, intermixing, and administration of medicaments, Abbott Laboratories has been one of the pioneers with its ADD-Vantage.RTM. line of products which includes sealed, flexible, clear plastic bags of various diluents and sealed vials of various medicaments interconnectible therewith whenever desired but without intermixing of the contents thereof until desired, both the bags of diluents and the vials of medicaments being readily storable and having a good shelf life. These diluent bags have sleeve-like inlet ports sealed in an upper edge thereof with stopper-gripping closures at the inner ends thereof with most of the sleeve-like ports being provided with internal threads which are complementary to external threads provided on neck portions of the vials to facilitate interconnection thereof. The vials are preferably provided with a plastic two-part cover which fits over the neck and upper portions of the vial to provide sterile protection of the stopper which has a central recess which is adapted for engagement with the stopper-gripping closure of the bag port. The lower edge of the two-part cover interfits with the upper edge of a plastic shroud which fits over the lower portion of the vial and which has an opening and a pull-out hanger in its bottom surface for supporting the vial in an inverted position. An annular frangible section interconnects the lower portion of the cover and the upper portion which is characterized by a reduced-thickness needle access section which is aligned with the central recess of the stopper whereby the medicament in the vial, if same is in liquid form, may also be extracted from the vial by a piercing-needle syringe. When the vial is to be interconnected with a bag of diluent, the upper tear-away portion of the cover is first removed to expose the stopper and the threads on the neck portion of the vial, after which it is rotatably tightened into the sleeve-like port with the recessed stopper fitting over and engaging the stopper-gripping closure of the bag port. The medicament remains isolated from the diluent until such time that the bag port closure is disengaged from the port with the stopper engaged therewith being simultaneously removed from the vial to permit intermixing of the medicament and the diluent. The bag port closure is disengaged by manipulation thereof from outside of the flexible walled bag.
This ADD-Vantage system is disclosed in the following listed U.S. patents, all of which are incorporated herein by reference:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Date ______________________________________ 4,614,267 September 30, 1986 4,614,515 September 30, 1986 4,703,864 November 3, 1987 4,757,911 July 19, 1988 4,781,679 November 1, 1988 4,784,259 November 15, 1988 4,784,658 November 15, 1988 4,936,445 June 26, 1990 4,948,000 August 14, 1990 ______________________________________
A new product line of Abbott Laboratories known as the ADD-Vance line, is directed to the storage, intermixing, dispensing and controlled administration of highly toxic materials which are packaged in vials similar to the vials of the ADD-Vantage line. However, in view of the extreme toxicity of these ADD-Vance drugs, which are primarily chemotherapeutics, the danger to both patients and health care workers is of extreme importance. These highly toxic materials require vials that are sealed to a greater degree than the requirements for mere sterility so as to protect health-care workers handling same and it is imperative that such highly toxic material vials not be interconnectible with single treatment diluent bags as same would be life-threatening if this occurred and the resulting mixture was administered to a patient.